Salami Technique
Is there something you have been meaning to do but have not done because the job is too big, too complex, too mind-boggling? (i.e. getting your professional engineering license!) If so, consider what Edwin C. Bliss calls the salami technique.
“Whenever a task seems overwhelming, pause for a moment and do a little thinking on paper,” Bliss advises in his book, Doing it Now (Charles Scribner’s & Bantam Books). “List chronologically every step that must be taken to complete the job. The smaller the steps, the better – even little mini-tasks that will take only a minute or two should be listed separately.”
“I call this the salami technique, because contemplation of an overwhelming task is like looking at a large uncut salami. It’s a huge, crusty, greasy, unappetizing chunk. You don’t feel you can get your teeth into it. But when you cut it into thin slices you transform it into something quite different. Those thin slices are inviting. They make your mouth water, and after you sampled one slice you tend to reach for another. Cutting up your overwhelming task into tiny segments can have the same effect. Now, instead of looking at a gargantuan project, you’re looking at a series of tiny tasks, each of which, considered separately, is manageable.”
“The Chinese philosopher Lao-tzu’s maxim that a journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step doesn’t really help us much until we know precisely in which direction we want to travel. With our list in front of us, we have a concrete idea of what that first step will be, and the second, and the third. We have a road map that will guide us to our destination. Since each step completed leads logically to the next, we quickly establish momentum, and the job is underway.”
